"I thought you were dead", says Calpurnia, Caesar's wife, when she meets Gordianus at the very beginning of Saylor's latest novel from the Roma sub Rosa series, The Triumph of Caesar. Many fans, too, thought Gordianus was dead in the troubled, crocodiled waters of the Nile. He didn't, and he's back with his family, safe and sound, dis gratias. And his projects for a quiet, peaceful retirement are once again blown apart. Calpurnia has been having strange dreams about Caesar's fate, supported by her etruscan soothsayer predictions, and Gordianus is to find the truth about it. But what appeared to be no more than irrational turns out to be a case of murder, when Gordianus learns his dear friend Hieronymus was murdered, trying to find Caesar's enemies. More than saving Caesar's life, Gordianus wants to find who murdered his massilian friend. Or so he says at the begining. The Triumph of Caesar is, again, a wisely made depiction of the end of the roman Republic, with it's social, cultural and political aspects. There we meet again a cold and clever Cleopatra, an ambitious Marc Antony, a ridiculous Cicero, and, though briefly, an icy cold Octavius, one of the best portraits of the future Augustus I've ever read in fiction.
Steven Saylor was in Lisbon, to the ICAN congress (22-26 july), and also to present the portuguese translation of The Triumph of Caesar: "O Triunfo de César". Saylor met some of his fans in a session in Bertrand-Chiado library. The turnout was excellent, there were dozens of fans, who listened to the author's interesting and witty talk about his books, all translated to portuguese by Maria José Figueiredo, also present. The fans made many questions, and the talk was excellent. Now we're all looking forward to Roma's sequel, that would lead us from where the first book left us, at Augustus time, to Constantin.
More photos here.
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